The Incredible Discoveries of Ian J. Spector

I had originally written this last year when I wasn’t sure what I was doing with WhatIsAwesome.com. Since you can’t access it through there anymore, I’m re-posting it here. I figure today is an appropriate time.

• 1772 - The first travelers checks are sold in London by the London Credit Exchange Company and are accepted in 90 different European cities. American Express would not begin its well-known traveler’s check system for 119 more years
   
• 1808 - The United States bans the importing of slaves
• 1845 - The Cobble Hill Tunnel (Atlantic Ave. Tunnel) in New York City is built.

The tunnel is now abandoned, but still exists and is about 2,750 feet long. The tunnel was originally just sort of a sunken train track used to rush passengers to ferries in Manhattan from Long Island. The trench was eventually covered up with bricks, turning it into a tunnel. While it has been attributed to be the first subway tunnel, this claim is dubious since there weren’t any stations built along it.

After the tunnel was closed for operations, it was discovered that it had been used for many purposes: 

1916: The FBI (formed in 1908) breaks into the tunnel suspecting that German terrorists were making bombs inside. Nothing of the sort was found.

1920s: Mushroom growing and distilling of bootleg whiskey.

1930s: New York City police break into the tunnel looking for “the body of a hoodlum.” The hoodlum was later discovered buried in cement, in a barrel, in Buffalo.

1940s: The FBI enters the tunnel again looking for spies.

The tunnel today:
 

• 1863 - Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation
• 1880 - Ferdinand de Lesseps, despite not being an engineer, begins the French construction of the Panama Canal. It would cost an estimated $120,000,000. Adjusting for inflation, that’s a whopping $2,548,080,527.28 in today’s dollar. The French would later cease construction on the canal altogether and the US would finish the job.
  
  French attempt at a Panama Canal circa 1885.
   
• 1901 - The Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed. 
• 1908 - For the first time, a ball is dropped in New York City’s Times Square to signify the start of the New Year at midnight.
  
  1 Times Square in 1908 and 100 years later during New Year’s 2008. 
• 1934 - Alcatraz becomes a United States federal prison.
• 1962 - United States Navy SEALs established.
• 1983 - The ARPANET officially changes to using the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet.
• 1984 - AT&T is famously broken up by the US Supreme Court into 22 different companies, only to reassemble itself some years later when it is acquired by parts… of its former self.
  

People Born

• 1449: Lorenzo de’ Medici (you know, like those guys who funded the Rennaisance)
• 1752: Betsy Ross
• 1735: Paul Revere
• 1863: Organizer of the modern Olympic Games, Pierre de Coubertin
• 1879: Hungarian-born film producer, William Fox. He’s the “Fox” in 20th Century-Fox.
• 1895: J. Edgar Hoover
• 1919: J.D. Salinger
• 1958: Joseph Saddler (you might know him as Grandmaster Flash)